2001 Internet Baseball Awards Results

Your Choices for the League's Top Honors

It's time to announce the winners of the tenth annual Internet Baseball Awards. More than 2,000 cyberspace baseball fans--a new record--participated in this effort to select the baseball players whose 2001 seasons were most deserving of honors.

This year marks not only our tenth year of balloting (we started in 1991, but sat out the 1994 season in protest of baseball's rude behavior), but also our fifth year of Web balloting. A few of our readers probably remember the good old days of e-mail ballots (as we remember all the fun it was counting ballots by hand), but most of you have been treated only to the extraordinarily comprehensive user-friendly Web ballots designed by BP's Webmaster, Dave Pease. Our thanks go to Dave, who puts in a ton of work to make this process go smoothly.

We also owe a debt of gratitude to all the people who've helped the Internet Baseball Awards grow and prosper. There are too many who fit that description to single out any individuals, but we do want to mention the denizens of the Usenet group rec.sport.baseball, everybody involved with the Baseball Prospectus, and our friends at ESPN.com. And of course, we appreciate the thoughtful work of the voters, especially the ones who maintained their sobriety while filling out their ballots.

The point system for the balloting was as follows:

Player of the Year Ballots: 14 points for first-place votes, nine points for second-place votes, eight points for third-place votes, etc., down to one point for a tenth-place vote.

Pitcher of the Year Ballots: ten points for first-place votes, seven points for second-place votes, five points for third-place votes, three points for fourth-place, and one point for fifth-place votes. (This is the one award where our point system differs from the BBWAA point system, because we use a longer ballot.)

Rookie of the Year Ballots: five points for first-place votes, three points for second-place votes, and one point for third-place votes.

Manager of the Year Ballots: five points for first-place votes, three points for second-place votes, and one point for third-place votes.

And now, the results:

American League Player of the Year

This year's Internet AL Player of the Year race was won by the same player who won last year's, Jason Giambi. Giambi is the fourth player to repeat as an Internet Player of the Year; Barry Bonds, Frank Thomas, and Mike Piazza previously pulled off the feat. Last year's second-place finisher--and the winner of the 1996 Internet AL Player of the Year--Alex Rodriguez, also repeated his finish.

However, we can assure readers that we didn't just re-use last year's balloting because Bret Boone, our third-place finisher, didn't receive a single vote last year. Manny Ramirez, who finished eighth, has finished in the top ten for four straight years, the longest streak of any AL player.

No pitcher cracked the AL top ten for the first time since 1996. Sixteen of the top 18 finishers in this year's balloting were on teams that made the playoffs.

You might have heard a little about this year's Internet NL Player of the Year. He hit more home runs in a season than anyone had before. He posted a slugging percentage higher than Babe Ruth ever did. He set the single-season walks record. In other words, he had the greatest offensive season of all time.

For those accomplishments, our readers overwhelmingly voted Barry Bonds into the top spot. Again. This marks Bonds's fifth Internet Player of the Year Award; no one else has captured more than two.

Our second-place finisher, Sammy Sosa, also finished second in the 1998 Internet NL Player of the Year voting to a different guy setting the single-season home run record. Sosa is the only player to finish in the top ten in NL Player of the Year voting each of the last four years. Mike Piazza, who finished 13th, did not finish in the top six for the first time in his career.

Randy Johnson, fifth in the voting, was the highest ranking NL pitcher since he had the same finish in 1999.

2001's AL Pitcher of the Year race was one of the toughest to call in recent memory. Voters ended up embracing Freddy Garcia, the winner of the 2001 AL ERA title. Garcia had previously shown up in Internet Baseball Award voting in 1999, when he finished fourth in AL Rookie of the Year balloting and 12th in AL Pitcher of the Year balloting.

Mike Mussina, who seems to be one of the runners-up every year, finished second, a rank he also achieved in 1999. Mark Mulder turned his league-leading win total into a third-place finish, while Roger Clemens, the likely BBWAA winner and a four-time Internet AL Pitcher of the Year winner, finished fourth for the second year in a row. Tim Hudson followed up last year's third-place ranking with a fifth-place finish in 2001. Mariano Rivera was the highest ranking reliever at #10, while last year's Internet AL Pitcher of the Year winner, Pedro Martinez, finished 11th.

Randy Johnson easily won the 2001 Internet NL Pitcher of the Year, his third in a row, and his fourth Internet Pitcher of the Year overall, tying Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens for the all-time lead. Curt Schilling, Johnson's teammate, finished second. Schilling's previous high ranking came in 1987, when he finished third.

Matt Morris, who had previously gotten just a few scattered votes in 1997, finished third in a year in which he established himself as one of the league's premier pitchers. Maddux, the fourth-place finisher, has finished in the top six every year since 1992. Darryl Kile's fifth-place finish, on the other hand, marks his first time in the top five since 1997.

The highest ranked relief pitcher was Felix Rodriguez at #16, and he's not even a closer.

IBA voters got caught up in Ichiromania as they voted Ichiro Suzuki to a sweeping victory in the Internet AL Rookie of the Year balloting. The 2001 American League batting champion's astounding success clearly caused voters to ignore their reservations about supporting a player experienced in Japan's big leagues.

Most non-Ichiro votes went to pitchers and middle infielders. 20-year-old Indians starter C.C. Sabathia was rewarded for his key role in the Indians' division title chase with a strong second-place finish. Other pitchers who finished in the top ten include Mariners starter Joel Piniero, Indians reliever Danys Baez, Blue Jays reliever Bob File, and Athletics reliever Erik Hiljus. Yankees second baseman Alfonso Soriano finished third overall, while Angels sparkplug David Eckstein ranked fourth and Twins second baseman Luis Rivas came in seventh.

Albert Pujols's historic season earned him 93% of the first place votes available and an overwhelming endorsement as the Internet NL Rookie of the Year. Pujols's rookie campaign--clearly one of the best ever--left little room on the rest of the ballot for what was an outstanding NL rookie crop. Astros starter Roy Oswalt, who would have been an easy Rookie of the Year choice in many other years, finished second, while the Phillies multi-talented shortstop Jimmy Rollins finished third.

Adam Dunn's stunning success after he was called up in July earned him fourth place. Brewer Ben Sheets and Cardinal Bud Smith, both pitchers who exhibited great promise in 2001, finished fifth and seventh respectively, while Braves second baseman Marcus Giles ended up sixth.

Winning 116 games in a season tends to earn respect even among ardent critics, and thus Lou Piniella captured his first ever Internet AL Manager of the Year Award. Art Howe, who led to the Athletics to a 100-win season after a dreadful start, also got substantial support from the voters. Tom Kelly, who in his last year managing presided over a somewhat rejuvenated Twins team, finished third, just ahead of Jimy Williams, who kept a battered Red Sox in the AL East race until he was fired. Joe Torre, who led the Yankees to yet another first place finish, placed fifth, while Mike Scioscia's second year with the Angels was acknowledged by a sixth-place finish.

It was a good year for managers with new teams in the National League. Larry Bowa, whose surprising Phillies were in the NL East playoff picture for most of the season, took home the award. Los Angeles' Jim Tracy presided over a squad beset by the injury bug, and his performance keeping the team together was good for second place. Magician Dusty Baker, last year's NL Manager of the Year, placed third, followed by the Cardinals' Tony LaRussa and departed Astros manager Larry Dierker, 1998's winner.

Thank you to all the folks who have helped to promote these awards in various corners of the Internet. These award results may be excerpted from this article in any form provided full credit is given to the Internet Baseball Awards and Baseball Prospectus.